Reasons Why Courtney's Door Is Closed
by Cereal-Killa
Summary: There were many reasons why Courtney's door would be shut. Duncan is just learning how to deal with them all. -Duncan/Courtney-


**Title:** Reasons Why Courtney's Door Is Closed

**Warnings:** Na-da.

**Words**: 2,189

**Summary**: There were many reasons why Courtney's door would be shut. Duncan is just learning how to deal with them all.

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There were many reasons why Courtney's door would be shut.

Duncan knew of these reasons. He had seen each and every one of them in action before. Courtney was often found slamming their bedroom door shut, encasing herself inside and leaving him in any other part of the house- e.g., the kitchen, the laundry room, on the toilet, etc.- to have to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why she was separating herself from the rest of the world.

This happened quite often, actually, and Duncan had learned that being with Courtney meant that you had to learn to take notes.

There were only eight reasons why Courtney's door would be shut. Although all of these reasons scattered and branched off into many different reasons themselves, Duncan found that he could categorize them into eight simple labels based on how to deal with them and what approach he was going to have to take.

Yes, for the first time ever, Duncan had done his homework, but that was probably because it had something to do with Princess.

There was, of course, the simple and most easiest reason of them all, the one that always seemed to trump the others in being the most common option. This was reason number one:

1: She was mad at something.

It didn't matter what she was mad at, whether work, school, her parents, her friends, money, the god damned washing machine that /quote/ "is being a little prick because it just won't fucking work!" /unquote/, or even Duncan himself (which was most likely the case). He had learned how to deal with a mad Courtney. She was easy, predictable even. Every one of her moves consisted of the same three points- defense, offense, and just plain cruelty. Courtney kung-fu was easy once you learned all the different angles. There were a lot of different levels of anger for Courtney.

This was where Duncan had to measure her anger, by knocking on the bedroom door and waiting for a signal. If she just spat something rude at him, things were safe, and this was going to be easy-peasy. However, if something broke or he felt her bang against the door in rage, it was going to be painful. He would suck in a breath and brace himself to pin her to the floor before she could beat the living shit out of him.

That was the most common of all the reasons behind why the door may be shut, but then, there was reason number two:

2: She was crying.

And this one was not so easy.

Duncan could always feel when Courtney was upset before he could hear her or see her. She would walk in the house and a blue atmosphere would suddenly settle in the air. It was as though he could smell how sad she was, like it was an animal instinct for him to recognize when something was causing her to tear up.

He rarely got the chance to see Courtney before she slid past him, covering her face with a hand, wiping away small lines of mascara that stained her cheeks as she hissed at him to leave her alone. She wasn't as strong then as she was when she was mad, so Duncan didn't try to keep his distance, instead hopping up as soon as he saw her, making his way for the door and then hesitating slightly.

Because if Courtney sounded quiet, if he peeked in and saw that her tears were silent ones, that she was staring out the window like it was the only thing holding her to this world, he would have to back up and shut the door, trying to not disturb her as he walked silently down the hallway. It wasn't his turn to help her when she was crying. He would only make things worse.

3: She is sleeping.

There was the stupid third reason, one that Duncan utterly hated. Courtney apparently didn't get enough sleep ever. She was always tired about something. He had started to understand that a sleepy Courtney was a whole different thing than a grouchy Courtney.

When Courtney was cranky, the only thing Duncan could do was try to stay out of her sight until she reached the bedroom, because if she caught him, she was sure to say something unreasonably rude. She had a problem when she was cranky- she couldn't stand seeing anyone else happy about anything. And since most of the world was on good terms with each other, she only found comfort locking herself into their room and claiming the bed as her own for the next three hours.

To tell the truth, Duncan just didn't feel like seeing her when she was in one of those moods- really, who would? He loved Courtney to death, but when she didn't have enough sleep, she could be rude and hurtful, mostly because she hated people seeing her that way. Duncan could usually get her out of her moods, but he started to realize that these times only seemed to come once a month, for a few days of the week… they weren't as much of an annoyance as they were a calendar for him, and they were like his own personal pregnancy test. The month that Courtney didn't get agitated was when Duncan could start panicking.

There was a worse reason than that, however.

4: She doesn't want you to see her naked.

Oh, wasn't that the devil of them all, though? Why would Courtney have the audacity to tell him that he wasn't allowed to see her naked? How many times had he seen her that way? Was it really like that?

Duncan knew it wasn't true, Courtney didn't care about changing in front of him anymore like she had when they were younger. She would often slip out of her clothes in front of him and change without a thought- though the things going through Duncan's mind definitely weren't as smooth. She could care less about him seeing her nude for the millionth time.

But of course, reason number four was a product of reason number one, two, and three. She wasn't in the mood to let him have any sort of pleasure, so she was going to be a bitch and whine about how uncomfortable it made her feel- and, sorry to be so bold, but that was a complete load of shit and Duncan knew it. Why the hell would she be uncomfortable changing in front of him? He had seen Courtney in much more embarrassing positions than when she was unclothed…

Basically, the first four reasons sucked the life out of Duncan. Those were the days when Duncan would be grumpy, when she would yell at him, when they would both fight and then make up and then someone would get slapped and the other would smile slightly. They were the hard times that melted into the other reasons.

5: She is mad at you and wants you to go talk to her.

Sometimes, Courtney would get so mad at Duncan that he didn't know what to do. He was sure that if he said another word to her, she might split in half or explode or something like that. She knew how to make a scene, and she knew that Duncan usually didn't like her when she was mad. She always believed that if she was mad, he was going to leave her alone.

But sometimes it was different. Sometimes, Duncan could tell that he couldn't let her go to bed to mad at him like that. And you would wonder how he might know, how he might be able to distinguish it from all the other times she was mad, but there were little things that let him know. Like if her voice cracked when she yelled at him, or if she clenched her teeth instead of biting her lip. Little things like that helped Duncan know the difference between her just being plain old grumpy and being genuinely upset about something.

He wasn't the best guy with words, but that didn't mean that he was going to leave her all alone to be upset. These were the times when Duncan would bust open the door, looking just as mad as she did, as they yelled, back and forth. Some people might find this unhealthy for the relationship, but it really and truly was the opposite. Having someone to yell at, someone who could take your aggression and slam it right back at you while neither one of you is really getting hurt… For them, that was exactly what they really needed. They were both hard people who could take a few scars. And sometimes, Duncan knew that all Courtney needed was a little push, a little fight to prove to herself that she wasn't the only one who was mad and angry.

Those times when she would slam the door but leave it unlocked were the times she needed him to fight with her.

6: She is crying and needs you to hold her.

This was the one reason Duncan hadn't realized until a little while ago. Courtney had never been the touchy feely type. Maybe she would let him hold her hand every once in a while, a chaste kiss every now and then, and all the other times things were heated and lust filled. She rarely ever hugged him, much less anybody else. Courtney just wasn't that type of girl.

Maybe that was why Duncan was so surprised when he figured out that Courtney wanted him to hold her. She had never said it out loud, and he highly doubted that she ever would, but he knew.

Because there was that one day that Duncan peeked in the closed door, to see her with her back against the wall, limp legs folded in front of her, her arms shaking as she pressed the palm of her hands into her eyes as the tears refused to stop flowing. She hated crying, she hated looking so weak, but Duncan could tell that she just couldn't do it on her own anymore.

That's why she wouldn't push him away when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. When he was quiet and kept his distance from her, when she would let out strangled gasps and hiccups because everything was just so terrible and she felt so alone. Duncan would only keep an arm around her, that was it, but that was all she needed and the most she was going to accept. She didn't want a full fledge embrace, she didn't want him to hold her close and whisper sweet things to her, she didn't want to need that. If having his arm around her was the only thing keeping her in balance, then so be it.

Duncan knew she needed to be kept safe, but she didn't want to feel weak. That's why he stayed quiet, calm, and didn't speak a word to her. Not until she feel into him and started to clutch to his chest, sobbing in the crook of his shoulder. Only then would he hold her. Only when she admitted defeat would he ever take away her pride.

7: She is sleeping and she wants you there to keep her warm.

Even when Courtney was tired, there were times when she obviously wanted Duncan to lay down with her. Usually, she was pretty straight forward with it- or at least as straight forward as Courtney can be. She would walk in the house and let out a loud yawn, saying, "I'm tired," lazily, as she walked slowly down the hallway, her eyes flickering to Duncan the whole time. She would enter her room and shut the door, laying herself on the bed.

The house was so quiet Duncan wouldn't know what to do with himself. He obviously had missed something or other, but by now he knew that it meant Courtney was sleeping. That was the only time she wasn't making some type of noise or other. He would quietly sneak into the bedroom, even though it wasn't necessary, and he would slide next to her, wrapping an arm around her softly, treating her like she was something delicate, like glass.

Courtney usually wasn't really sleeping, but she wouldn't let him know that. He did some pretty cute things when he thought she was asleep. He would touch her hair and play with her fingers, sometimes mumbling random things to himself as he drifted in and out of light sleep. And Courtney would let out a huge grin as he pulled her closer, nuzzling his head into her shoulder.

Of course, there was reason number eight, Duncan's most favorite reason of all.

8: She's only pretending she doesn't want you to see her naked…

And he was pretty sure that didn't need much of an explanation.

There were many reasons why Courtney's door would be shut. Duncan was finding that he could slowly (but surely) learn how to deal and possibly love each and every one of them.

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**Authors Note:**

D'aww… Such a fluffy little thing. :) I have learned that love/hate relationships make for the best one-shots.

Ah, anyways, I'm off school today. Lots of snow and ice, you know, all that junk, so I'm probably going to be stuck in class until my birthday. *sighs* Yeah.

I'd like to thank my brother, David, for the inspiration. He was totally standing outside my bedroom door, ranting about how there were only five reasons my door would be shut, and he really gave me a good idea.

Also, I feel so great about myself because I was reading the facts about the year of the rat from the second Fruits Basket book, just cause I'm the year of the rat and everything. And then it said:

"…this cunning insight does tend to make a person born in the rat year a particularly excellent writer."

I mean did you read that? It's in the stars that I'm going to possibly get my dream job one day and be a famous writer! Holy shit, I'm so happy!

Okay, well, sorry for being so dumb, and thanks for reading!

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First Draft Finished: 1/24/2011  
Final Draft Finished: 1/26/2011  
Published: 1/26/2011  
Fandom: Total Drama series  
Disclaimer: Total Drama Island and all its characters are property of their respective owners.  
©2011 _Cereal-Killa_


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